Hair curl retainer



Oct. 14, 1969 N. L. soLoMoN 3,472,244

HAIR CURL RETAINER Filed April 50, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet l 'NVENTOR NATHAN LJSOLOMON ATTORNEY Oct. 14, 1969 N. L}. SOLOMON 3,472,244

HAIR CURL RETAINER Filed April 30,..1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 .-.\'VE.\"TOR. NATHAN L.SO'LOMON United States Patent 3,472,244 HAIR CURL RETAINER Nathan L. Solomon, PA). Box 550, Engiewood, NJ. 07631 Continuation-impart of application Ser. No. 503,316, Oct. 23, 1965. This application Apr. 30, 1963, Ser.

Int. Cl. A45d 8/00 US. Cl. 132-9 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A hair curling cushion having a pad made of a flexible, compressible, resilient, absorbent material with a generally longitudinal slit formed therethrough and open at one end which divides the pad into two portions, one of which may be pivoted toward and away from the other. One surface of the pad has hair securing flexible projections extending outwardly therefrom and the opposite surface rests on the scalp of the user.

This application is a continuation in part of my United States application Ser. No. 503,316, filed Oct. 23, 1965, now abanboned.

This invention relates to a hair retainer and more particularly to a device for retaining and positioning a curl or roll of hair to be formed on the head of a user.

Heretofore, to form a curl or wave, a tress of hair was rolled on a roller or formed in some manner and then a holding device of some type was applied to the formed hair to maintain the tress of hair in the set position. These holding devices often were bobby pins, clips of some type, elastic bands, etc. These devices often deformed the hair during the curl forming operation and destroyed the natural look of the curl. Further, devices such as bobby pins harm the strands of hair, as well as being awkward for self use. Additionally, it was difficult to lock the curler in position on the head of the user, when the curler was not rolled tightly against the scalp of the user. The rolled hair became loose during the drying or waving operation, thereby destroying the natural look of the curl. For best results, the hair is wound tightly against the scalp of the user and maintained in this manner, which for hair curlers with bristles or prongs cause irritation to the scalp and are uncomfortable to use, especially when the user retires. To alleviate this discomfort, the tress is often not wound sufficiently tight, and when the hair dries, the hair curling device becomes loosened further.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a device which locks a tress of tightly rolled hair, in the desired position on the head of the user and imparts a feeling of softeness to the scalp of the user, regardiess of the hardness or sharpness of the curling device and eliminates the discomfort of using the curling device alone.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a device which easily receives and positively retains a tightly rolled tress of hair in position throughout the curling process without discomfort, and which protects the scalp of the user against heat or chemicals often used during the hair forming operation.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a device which positively holds a tightly formed hair tress at various positions relative to the scalp of the user so as to allow various hair styles to be provided with a minimum of eflort or skill.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide a device which quickly looks a swatch of hair at the end of the rolling operation preparatory to forming a curl and retains the formed hair continuously under tenice sion during the forming operation comfortably on the head of the user.

Yet another object of the present invention is to accomplish all of the above with a device which is simple in construction, light in weight, easy to use, durable, effective in operation and inexpensive to manufacture.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective plan view of one embodiment of the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a front elevational cross sectional view taken along line 2-2 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a side perspective view illustrating positioning one form of the present invention on the scalp;

FIGURE 4 is a perspective view of the device according to the present invention locking a rolled curl of hair in position;

FIGURE 5 is a perspective view of a further embodiment showing the pivoting of the two portions of the device; and

FIGURE 6 is a perspective view of this embodiment on the scalp receiving a tress of hair.

Referring to the drawings, a hair retaining device embodying the features of the present invention is shown and designated generally by reference numeral 10. Hair retaining device 10 has a resilient and pliant base or lower portion 12. Advantageously base 12 is made of foam rubber or plastic sheet material such as urethane foam, and is soft, compressible and comfortable to the scalp. Base 12 may be made in a variety of thicknesses or shapes to retain the hair to be formed at the desired distance from the scalp of the user, as will be discussed hereinafter, to form various hair styles.

Attached to the upper surface of base 12 is a layer or strip of material or fabric 14 having a plurality of upstanding bristles, loops, or projections 16. Projections 16 are fixed to cover 14, so as to be selfsupporting, but resilient and return to their hair engaging position after being released from being depressed during use. Each bristle or projection 16 has an elongated arched thread or strand 18 and terminates in a hook 20 or combines with an adjoining projection to catch the hair between as at 22. Strands 18 may be of a variety of lengths to effectively catch and hold the hair.

The hair is held by bristles 16 by pressing the hair onto the surface of cover 14. The hair strands are gripped by the projections or become engaged between cooperating pairs of adjoining loops or bristles 22 and thus held securely but releasably in position on device 10.

Cover 14 is advantageously porous and is bonded or laminated, such as at 24, to base member 12 in some convenient manner. Transverse to the hair engaging surface of cover 14 is a slot 26, which passes through base member 12 and cover 14 for about one half to about three quarters of the length.

In using device 10, the bottom surface of base 12 is placed abutting the scalp 28 of the user, as shown best in FIGURE 3, with cover 14 facing outwardly. A tress of hair 30 is received in slot 26 and strands of hair are rolled on a conventional roller 32, as shown in FIGURE 4, toward the scalp 28. When the rolled hair, indicated at 34 reaches bristles 16, the rolled hair 34 is manually pressed against the bristles 16, thereby compressing the resilient material 12 in the area about roller 32 and locking a portion of the hair strands between cooperating bristles 22. The wound hair 34 is locked in position and will remain in this position until intentionally removed. Ordinarily the tress of hair 34 would tend to loosen on curler 32 during the drying process and relieve the tension imparted to the curled tress during rolling; however, the

compressed resilient material 12 in the region of curler 32 is slowly relieved thereby accommodating the slackness of the drying hair. While locked in position, heat or chemicals may be safely applied to the rolled hair tress 30, to set the curl without danger of irritating the scalp. The porosity of cover 14 allows the base 12 to absorb any spilled or dripped hair setting solution to prevent irritation of the scalp of the user. The hair strands are released from device 10 by pulling and the lock of hair unwound. This unwinding operation is effected without difiiculty. The lock of hair is removed from slot 26 and device 10 lifted from scalp 28. The formed tress of hair remains.

Referring to the embodiment shown in FIGURES and 6, a hair retaining device 40 is shown having a compressible soft base 42 with a cover 44 attached to one surface. Cover 44 has hair holding projections or loops 46 extending outwardly therefrom. Device 40 has a generally triangular shaped opening 48 therein with the apex 50 of this opening adjacent one edge 52 of device 40. A longitudinal slit 54 extends from the opposite edge 56 of device 40 to opening 48 through border portion 55. The border portion 55 forms flaps 57 which hold the tress during drying. Slit S4 and opening 43 divides device 40 into two portions. These two portions are movable toward and away from each other, as shown in shadow in FIG- URE 5, pivoting about the reduced width of device 40 adjacent apex 50 of opening 48.

In use, flaps 57 are separated as shown in shadow in FIGURE 5 and a tress of hair 53 is passed between them into opening 48. Flaps 57 are moved towards each other trapping tress 58 in opening 48 and overlapping border portions 55, as shown in FIGURE 6. The projections 46 on one flap 57 firmly hold the other flap 57 preventing any accidental displacement. The tress is wound in a manner similar to that described above and pressed against hair holding projections 46 and yieldingly compressing base 42. The rolled tress is locked in position under tension until intentionally removed.

To remove, the hair is unwound, and the ends of border 55 separated and device 40 is removed.

While a triangular opening was shown other shaped openings could be used. Preferably the opening has generally tapered or curved sides from the pivoting point to properly hold the tress uniformly when the arms are pivoted, such as shown in FIGURE 6. Further, the overlapping ends could have felt or cloth on the undersurface, so as to better resist the gripping action of projections 46.

To position a curl remote from the scalp, a thicker base member 12 or -42 is used. The hair is wound tightly on the roller until it contacts cover 14 or 44 so that the rolled hair always abuts a firm surface, regardless of its relative position to the scalp.

While a slot is shown to receive tress 30, it is not necessary. Further, covers 14- or 44 may be made of a plastic material such as known in the trade as Velcro or may be molded to provide the hook and projections integral with the cover material itself. Also, the device may be made in any desired configuration, such as round, rectangular, triangular, trapezoidal. Care should be taken to provide sufficient surface on opposite sides of the longitudinal openings 26 or 48 to provide an adequate number of hair holding projections to insure good holding regardless of which direction the roller is wound.

What I claim is:

1. A hair retaining device adapted to abut the scalp of the user and hold a coiled tress of hair in position to dry during the wave-forming operation, comprising a resilient, freely flexible, planar base member having one surface adapted to abut the scalp of the user, said member having a tress-receiving passageway therethrough from surface to surface and extending a predetermined distance from one edge towards the opposite edge, and hair-securing means on the opposite surface of said base member, said hair-securing means comprising a plurality of flexible hair engaging projections extending outwardly from the opposite surface and adapted to releasably retain strands of hair pressed thereagainst while tension is continually applied to said coiled tress by the resiliency of said base member.

2. A hair-retaining device as in claim 1, wherein said passageway extends from said one edge substantially across said member to adjacent the opposite edge to form a pivoting point and dividing said member into two portions, said portions being pivotable about said pivot point, so that the ends of said portions adjacent said one edge are overlapped to entrap any hair within said passageway.

3. A hair retaining device in accordance with claim 1, in which said base member has a predetermined thickness and has a cover attached to the other surface of said base member and containing said projections.

4. A hair retaining device as in claim 1, wherein said base member includes a surface on one side of said passageway wide enough to support a coiled tress of hair that has been passed through said passageway, coiled and disposed against said surface area at one side of said passageway and there secured solely by pressing against said hair en aging projections and compressing said base member so that tension is continually applied to the coiled tress by the compression of said base member While retained on the head of the user.

5. A hair-retaining device as in claim 2, wherein said passageway has sidewalls, said sidewalls diverging from said pivot point to adjacent said one edge to form a generally triangular opening, so that said sidewalls of said passageway abut the longitudinal sides of the tress of hair therein when said ends are overlapped.

6. A hair retaining device in accordance with claim 2, wherein said passageway is generally triangular in shape and terminating within said base member, a slit passing from one edge through said member and communicating with said opening, the apex of said triangular opening being adjacent the opposite edge to form the pivot point.

7. A hair retaining device in accordance with claim 5, in which said base member includes a surface of one portion wide enough to support a coiled tress of hair disposed against the surface and there secured by pressing against said hair engaging projections and compressing said base member, so that the side walls of said opening engage said tress and tension is continually applied to the coiled tress by the resiliency of said base member.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,055,008 9/1936 Friedman l3236.1 2,152,672 4/1939 Solomon. 2,171,931 9/1939 Gilbert l3236.1 2,598,837 6/1952 Schepis 132-362 3,301,265 1/1967 Brenx-Albertoni l3240 LOUIS G. MANCENE, Primary Examiner JAMES W. MITCHELL, Assistant Examiner 

